LONDON — Britain’s newspapers should be regulated by an independent body dominated by nonjournalists with the power to levy fines for ethical lapses, a judge recommended Thursday after a year-long inquiry.

Prime Minister David Cameron expressed misgivings about a key recommendation in the 2,000-page report — that the new regulator be enshrined in law. Cameron said he was concerned about government interference in free speech.

“I’m proud of the fact that we’ve managed to survive hundreds of years without state regulation,” he said.

The impasse left questions about the impact of Lord Justice Brian Leveson’s probe of media ethics in Britain. The inquiry was triggered by a tabloid phone-hacking scandal that expanded to engulf senior figures in politics, the police and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

The report pleased victims of tabloid intrusion but left editors worrying about creeping state control of the country’s fiercely independent press.

Leveson’s key recommendation was to create a regulator for newspapers and their websites, which he said should be established in law to prevent more people from being hurt by “outrageous” press behavior that has “wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people.”

“The ball moves back into the politicians’ court: They must now decide who guards the guardians,” he said.

Cameron, under pressure over an issue that has divided his own Conservative Party, welcomed Leveson’s proposal for a new regulator, saying, “The status quo is not an option.”

But the prime minister said that asking legislators to enshrine it in law meant “crossing the Rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land.”

Cameron instead called on the much-criticized British press to show it could control itself by implementing the judge’s proposals quickly without political involvement.